Remington XXV AN UNLIKELY CHAMPION
By Amber Heintzberger O
ne of the leading three-day event horses in the world was never supposed to set foot on a cross-country course. Bred and trained in Germany, Remington XXV was intended to be
a dressage star. “Remi’s” career, however, is filled with big changes, big highs and big lows.
Career Shifts A Hanoverian gelding by Rubinstein out of Hauptstut- much by Wenzel 1, he was trained and shown in Germany and eventually exported to the United States as a dressage horse. Eventer Randy Ward started jumping him before the Juvonen family of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, purchased him as a foxhunter. Densey Juvonen, 68, has ridden for years and has
evented to preliminary level. A member of the Cheshire Hunt, she imported Remington XXV as a hunt horse. Shortly after he arrived she unfortunately sustained a head injury when she fell from another horse and was unable to ride Remi herself. The original plan was to sell him, but when he failed the pre-purchase exam, Densey and her husband Ron, an avid polo player, decided to send Remi to event rider Boyd Martin to train and to sell. When Olympian Phillip Dutton first moved to the U.S.
from Australia, the Juvonens were his employers. When it came time to sell Remington, Boyd was working as Dutton’s assistant trainer and rider. Boyd started riding Remington in 2007 moving up quickly from novice to intermediate level in the first year of their partnership. Eventually it was decided that he would keep riding the horse to see what they could do. Ron Juvonen, 70, has played high goal polo in Palm
Beach and regularly hunts with the Cheshire Hunt. He says that initially he thought he would be bored watching someone else ride his horse. However, the strong work ethic of eventing appeals to him, and he enjoys it more than he ever thought he would. Though his initial rise up the levels was meteoric,
Remington struggled with the show jumping phase for some time, often losing the top placing to rails down in the final phase. But Boyd persevered and eventually the hard work and patience paid off. In April 2010 the pair placed 11th at the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* and claimed a spot on the short list for the eventing team at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Ultimately Boyd’s own horse Neville Bardos, a scrappy
off-the-track Thoroughbred that Boyd brought over from Australia, was selected for the WEG team. They became the highest-placing individual horse and rider combination for the United States. With a grant from the U.S. Equestrian Federation, Boyd
Boyd Martin and Remington competing in dressage at the 2010 Rolex Kentucky.
42 March/April 2011
and Remington XXV, who has become fondly known as the “Hanoverian Hurricane,” went on to compete at the Pau CCI4* in France in November. It was Boyd’s first European competition, and he and Remington came excruciatingly close to winning the event, only to have four rails down in
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